K’taka has over 39 lakh vehicles older than 20 years; highest in country

Bengaluru: Karnataka has over 39 lakh older vehicles than 20 years, the highest in the country, while Delhi stands second with 36 lakh vehicles.

Responding to a query in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Choubey said there are 2,14,25,295 vehicles older than 20 years in the country.

He said these figures exclude vehicles in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep as they are ”not in centralised Vahan 4 portal”.

While Karnataka has 39,48,120 vehicles older than 20 years, Delhi has 36,14,671, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 26,20.946 such vehicles, as per the data shared by the minister in a written response.

Kerala recorded 20.67 lakh 20-year-old vehicles, Tamil Nadu has 15.99 lakh such vehicles and Punjab 15.32 lakh vehicles, he said.

On being asked about pollution caused by these vehicles, Choubey said no assessment has been made regarding the pollution caused by these vehicles in the country.

The number of 20-year-old vehicles in Delhi assume significance as the Supreme Court had ruled in 2018 that any registered diesel vehicle more than 10 years old, and any petrol vehicle over 15 years old cannot operate in NCR. These rules have been laid down in various orders issued by the NGT (2015) and the Supreme Court (2018).

However, earlier this year, the Centre had proposed a new draft vehicle-scrapping policy, which will allow owners to use their old vehicles after a fitness test and on payment of a higher fee.